


Beyond Time

by sodakooh



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: "SHE IS A BITCH, (hint: it's a vine), Angst, B-I-C-T...H", Bottom Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Eventual Romance, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Angst, Immortal Merlin, M/M, Merlin Teaches Arthur Stuff, Modern Era, Morgana is a bitch, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Poor Merlin, Reincarnation, This has a Soulmate-esque vibe, Top Merlin, Whump, cough cough, i tagged it with major character death because uhh a certain blond died temporarily, if you don't know what i'm referencing don't talk to me, this is lowkey really cliche
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-25 05:49:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,386
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14970428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sodakooh/pseuds/sodakooh
Summary: Merlin had to watch as his world crumbled around him, and as his king died in his arms before he could express his true emotions. Centuries passed, and Merlin floated about, eyes always downcast until one stormy night, a battered male is wheeled into the emergency room.It's only when he hears his name that Merlin truly looks up for the first time.





	Beyond Time

**Author's Note:**

> listen listen i don't know ANYTHING about hospitals and medicine and stuff okay (for proof: i had to look up what a stretcher was called but that may just be because i only knew the word in french.)
> 
> i've never even been inside a hospital for god's sake
> 
> so i am sorry if you're in medicine right now and are reading this. cut me some slack please and thanks <3

One thousand four hundred twenty-two days; Merlin had seen people grow, people die, kingdoms rise and fall, and far too many wars. Everything seemed to fade into one another after the second turn of the century, and soon he couldn’t remember the name of the kind lady who spared him the piece of bread, or what he named the gentle horse that carried him across lands.

 

Yet, no matter how hard he tried, Merlin couldn’t seem to rid his mind of the one memory that haunted him for all eternity.

 

He could still hear the cries of the knights as they fell on the grassy plains, crackle of fire barely drowning them out. Blood crept down Merlin’s cheek from a gash in his skin, but Merlin didn’t feel any pain, the adrenaline taking him over. The scent of burning flesh made Merlin want to gag, but all of his focus was on trying to take down Morgana, who seemed to have derailed completely from the path of goodness. Camelot had fallen, his King was in Morgana’s grasp, and Merlin didn’t have the strength to keep up with Morgana’s ferocity.

 

“Morgana, please,  _ please,  _ let Arthur go,” Merlin begged from the ground after his legs gave out from underneath him. As he pleaded, he could see the look of pure fear in Arthur’s eyes and all that echoed in his mind was  _ “you’ve failed him.” _

 

Morgana let out a dark laugh, the grip on Arthur’s throat tightening even more. The king gasped and gagged, face turning a shade of red that made Merlin’s stomach churn. “Oh, I do enjoy watching you  _ beg, _ Emrys.” she replied, watching Merlin’s expression with murderous intent. “Continue. Beg me to spare this…  _ vermin’s _ life.”

 

Merlin closed his eyes, a few tears spilling from them. He pressed his forehead to the cool stone, showing complete submission before Morgana. Without raising his head, he could feel the two stares from Arthur and Morgana, which only stripped him of his collectivity.

 

“Morgana, please. Let Arthur go,” he pleaded, his throat tight as he tried to swallow his fear of losing someone so close to him. He wouldn’t lose Arthur--he couldn’t. “I will do anything, please, just--just spare him.”

 

There was the clicking of shoes against the stone tiles as Morgana took a step closer to where Merlin laid, submissive. She hummed, then said, “Why, I couldn’t refuse such a tempting offer.” The sound of a body hitting the floor caused Merlin’s head to raise, and he saw Arthur’s body crumpled on the floor, gasping desperately for air.

 

“Get up,” Morgana commanded, grabbing Merlin by his hair and raising him to his feet. Merlin groaned in pain, letting her do as she pleased since that was the price he had to pay for setting Arthur free. Once Merlin was on his feet--wobbling, but on his feet--Morgana smiled at him, sending a shiver up his spine.

 

Merlin looked Morgana dead in the eyes with a newfound sorrow as he asked, “What do you want?” In truth, he was terrified of the idea of death, but if that meant saving Arthur then he would give his life in a second.

 

“I want you to drink this.”

 

Morgana pulled a small vial from who-knows-where with a few words, forming an incantation. The vial had some sort of translucent liquid in it, and the top was sealed with a golden cap. It seemed like the liquid was enough to be taken in a few gulps, but Merlin wondered if he would need all of it for the potion to “take effect”...

 

Merlin’s hair was let go, and he stumbled briefly before regaining his balance. The vial was handed to him, and with a shaky hand, Merlin examined it. “So you’ll leave Arthur and Camelot alone once I drink this?” he asked, already opening the vial.

 

Morgana lowered her head in an elegant bow, which seemed quite ironic considering her mental state. “Yes.”

 

Merlin looked at the clear liquid, then back at Arthur. Arthur seemed to have regained some of his breath, and he called out to him. “Merlin, don’t!” he shouted, voice hoarse and barely audible. “You don’t know what that’ll do to you!”

 

The sorcerer looked at Arthur and flashed him a small smile. “I’m sorry, but I can’t let you die,” Merlin replied, and without another word, poured the vial’s contents into his mouth. The liquid had a bitter taste to it, but Merlin didn’t hesitate to pour all of it down his throat. The momen the vial was completely depleted, Merlin felt… completely the same?

 

“What did you d—“ Merlin began asking, but his sentence was cut short as he saw Morgana charge at him with a knife, stabbing him directly in his thigh. Merlin let out a guttural noise, the pain causing the edges of his vision to grow black and stars to dance around. Merlin grasped at his leg, then looked up to Morgana, who had an entertained expression on her face.

 

“Don’t be such a baby, Merlin,” she mused, grabbing Merlin’s wrist and pulling it away from where he had grasped his leg. Merlin looked at Arthur with fear, realizing that if that potion didn’t kill him, it did something a  _ million _ times worse. Morgana used her other hand to grab Merlin’s hair and force his gaze back to his wound. “If you would stop whimpering, you’d see that the bleeding stopped.”

 

And as much as he’d like to ignore Morgana, she was right. The patch of fabric right around the wound was drenched in blood, but the wound itself had already begun to heal from the inside out. Morgana let go of Merlin, allowing him to continue to marvel at the fact that somehow, he was healing at an unimaginably fast rate.

 

“As you can tell, Merlin,” Morgana began again, “you’re now immortal. Now, just to show you what was  _ supposed  _ to happen…”

 

Merlin looked up, brain registering information too slowly, only to hear a loud cry of pain as Morgana stabbed Arthur in his leg--not as deep as Merlin’s was, judging by the remnants of blood along the part of the blade still sticking out--and instead dragged it from the top of the thigh all the way to his knee. Blood immediately gushed from the wound and Arthur flailed his limbs to get Morgana away from him.

 

“Arthur!” Merlin cried out, ignoring the now-dull pain in his leg to scramble over to his king. Merlin held Arthur in his arms, using one hand to try and stop the bleeding but there was simply too big a wound and too much blood leaving his system at once. The sorcerer searched his mind for any spell he could try and muster up the energy for that could heal wounds like that, but in his frazzled state, Merlin had nothing.

 

“Merlin,” Arthur gasped, fingers clinging to Merlin’s shirt like a lifesaver. Hearing the complete pain Arthur was in crushed Merlin’s entire soul, and he looked back at Morgana with tears and rage in his eyes.

 

“You promised me!” he shouted, hair from the three of them flowing as wind picked up in the room. Merlin’s eyes glowed amber as a burst of magic flew through the atmosphere at his words. “You promised nothing would happen to him!”

 

Morgana looked at the blade dripping with crimson and smirked. “Oh Merlin,” she began, “haven’t you learned not to trust me? Besides, it doesn’t matter because I will be dead soon too.”

 

Merlin clenched his jaw. “What do you mean?” he asked.

 

“A life for a life—that’s the price. I gave you infinite life, so I must pay the price,” Morgana said, looking out at the burning landscape with little life left. Her soldiers were crumpled on the floor as well, and from where Merlin was able to see, it didn’t seem like there were going to be any survivors.

 

He would soon find out that was the case.

 

“But now, I can finally have what I have always wanted,” Morgana hummed, then looked at Merlin, “Camelot’s fall.”

 

Merlin did hate Morgana, yes, but somehow the memories of her when she hadn’t strayed from the light touched his broken heart, and he let out a shaky breath. “Why? Why am I immortal? Why do you want the entire kingdom to fall?”

 

“You. You stopped me so many times—stopped me from getting what I wanted. Because of you, the  _ one thing _ I loved was taken from me. You  _ killed _ my sister. You killed her slowly, painfully!” Morgana screamed, her own eyes glowing amber as a vase nearby shattered. “You took the world from me, Emrys. Now, I will take the world from you. You will live forever, knowing that everyone and everything you called home will have vanished and it will be all your doing.”

 

Merlin was completely speechless, the sound of Morgana’s incantation audible over his heartbeat in his ears. “Morgana, please don’t do this!” Merlin called desperately, but Morgana simply continued spilling words. A rumble was heard from the distance, and a crackle of lightning flashed as the incantation reached its climax.

 

Morgana fell onto the ground, her magic spent, and looked at Merlin with one last evil glare.

 

“You… might want to take care of your king,” she said, voice weak yet striking something deep within Merlin’s chest. “You only have a few minutes left, but he has far less.”

 

It dawned on Merlin that he hadn’t checked up on Arthur, whose eyes were unfocused. The light that shone in his eyes had dimmed--the light that always made Merlin aware of when he was serious, or enjoying himself, or if he was in a playful mood. Arthur’s grip on Merlin’s clothes had loosened, and his breaths were shallow.

 

“Arthur,” Merlin breathed, a steady stream of tears flowing from his eyes. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry… this--this all my fault.”

 

Arthur looked at Merlin and for the first time since that war started, smiled. The light in his eyes was faint, but it was there in those final moments. “It’s alright,” the king responded, eyelids growing heavier. “You were a good friend, Merlin. Servant, however…”

 

Merlin laughed sadly, realizing how much he was going to miss Arthur’s playful teasing. He brought Arthur closer to his chest, his body now wracked with sobs and he tried forming coherent sentences. “It was an--an honour to serve you, sire,” Merlin cried, barely enunciating his words but still getting his point across.

 

Arthur smiled, and in that moment, Merlin was overwhelmed with an emotion he had been putting off for so long. 

 

Love.

 

He loved Arthur. He was in love with Arthur, and he was dying in Merlin’s arms. He caused Arthur’s death, and he would have to deal with everlasting guilt suffocating him for the rest of time. Arthur had brought so much into Merlin’s life, and that being pulled away was too much to bear.

 

As the dark green fog drifted closer and closer to the castle, Merlin held Arthur’s body close to him. He could feel his king’s final breath leave his body and the grip on Merlin’s shirt go completely limp, and the window’s around them shattered from the burst of pure  _ emotion.  _

 

Merlin didn’t care about the fog that surrounded him with a cold feeling, or the blood on his hands that became drier and drier as the seconds ticked by. For the next years, all he could do was  _ want.  _

 

He wanted his friends. He wanted his family. He wanted Camelot. He wanted  _ Arthur. _

 

Merlin has stopped aging once Morgana had cast her spell, so to not raise suspicion, he cast a slow-acting aging spell on himself that lasted years as he tried to figure out how to remove this curse. He would go see every sorcerer in the lands, cross seas, even resort to some questionable methods. Nothing seemed to work, and Merlin would have to move to another land, lift the aging spell, and reset his life.

 

Merlin shared his stories from Camelot with a few passerby’s in taverns here and there, and one interesting thing about being immortal was that he was able to see things flourish. For example, the tales he told about Camelot spread through the lands, and eventually, they became a “fictional” work. Merlin was particularly amused by the portrayal of Arthur, and how he wasn’t a stubborn, arrogant clotpole. 

 

The sorcerer watched lands change and countries form, and eventually went back to where Camelot once stood. The terrain had been renamed to Wales, and Merlin tried not to be too offended by that. He settled in and got a degree in nursing, and in doing so, he felt closer to Gaius than he ever did in the past centuries of living. Not only did he feel closer to Gaius, but Merlin also felt as though subconsciously, by helping all these people in hospital, he was saving all those he helped kill by Morgana’s hand.

 

Even centuries later, he could hear the agonizing screams.

 

***

 

The thunder rumbled distantly as Merlin stood in one of the recovery rooms with a patient who was about to be released. He wore a bright smile on his braced-face, eyes sparkling with excitement. He had been in the recovery room for a top surgery, and Merlin found it amazing how changing one small aspect of your body could make such a change on the inside as well.

 

The sound of wheel’s rolling and voices speaking to each other from down the hall caused Merlin’s head to jerk up as he left the young man’s room. He noticed a group of people wheeling a patient in a stretcher down the hall, and Merlin quickly stepped out of the way. As he checked his charts for who he needed to visit next, a voice cut through all the others.

 

“Merlin.”

 

Faint but clear, Merlin’s eyes lifted back up to the patient on the stretcher, but he couldn’t see who it was. The swarm of people giving and receiving directions blocked his view, and Merlin was too busy in that moment to go and see.

 

He bit the bottom of his lip as he turned and walked away in the opposite direction, thunder booming in the distance.

**Author's Note:**

> fuel my motivation which is at an all-time low with comments pleaasseee


End file.
